iPhone 15 is the best-selling phone in the world in the third quarter of 2024

Counterpoint, which monitors the mobile market for phone sales, regularly reports on the best-selling phones. That's right, the global podium is once again made up entirely of iPhones, and you probably won't be surprised to see the regular iPhone 15 as the gold medal winner, followed by the iPhone 15 Pro Max in silver and the iPhone 15 Pro », which is similarly advanced but significantly smaller, is in third place.

The devices were also ranked in the exact same order in the April-June quarter of this year, following a similar success for the iPhone 14 trio at the same time last year. So, you might be inclined to dismiss Apple's newfound success as something out of the ordinary, which would be a mistake. Keeping your phones on top of the competition like this from quarter to quarter is definitely not an easy task, especially with so many competitors trying to chip away at your dominance and with Samsung dominating the vendor wars.

Apple also deserves a lot of credit for putting its Pro models on par with non-Pro iPhones, which is naturally good for the company's bottom line. But on the not-so-bright side of things, the regular iPhone 15's market share in the third quarter of 2024 was lower than the previous model's in the third quarter of 2023, and the iPhone 14 was less successful than the iPhone 13 at the same time.

The status of Samsung and Xiaomi
The first thing die-hard Samsung fans will likely notice about Counterpoint's latest top ten best-selling smartphone list is that the Galaxy S24 Ultra didn't make the list. It's definitely a bit disappointing, but considering the S23 Ultra also failed to make the list this time last year, it's not too surprising.

What's actually a bit surprising is that the Galaxy S24 is on the Q3 2024 top ten list. That's because the regular "S23" also didn't rank among the best-selling phones of Q3 2023, which means Samsung is making a clear and significant advance in its flagship market segment.

For example, the Galaxy A55 seems unable to carry on the legacy of the previous generation, which may be due to (among other things) its lack of availability in key regions such as the US and improvements to the Galaxy A35. The 5G-capable A35 is far more popular than last year's Galaxy A34 5G, while the Galaxy A15, Galaxy A15 5G and Galaxy A05 seem to be just as popular today as the Galaxy A35 5G. A14, A14 5G and A04e were sold in 2023, they are on sale.

Overall, Samsung can certainly be proud of its five successful Q3 2024 smartphone sales results, and the same can probably be said for Xiaomi. Of course, the ultra-affordable Redmi 13C couldn't improve on the ninth-ranked Redmi 12C from Q3 2023, but at least the China-based tech giant is still on the list alongside Apple and Samsung. Unlike many other big brands from this country and many others.